Monday, February 27, 2006

Sigh, the transmission is toast :( Now we're waiting on the assessment value of my gram's mini van to see if we'll buy that or something else, lovely. Sure Matt has a car, but I can't drive it...yet...

We had a quiet weekend, I spent most of the weekend doing some long overdue tidying. My craft room is back to normal!! The desk could still use some cleaning but the rest is all sorted and put away properly, even the fabrics are folded and in the baskets again. Mom is down this week driving my sorry butt to work (and DS to school) until a car is straightened out so we wanted the place to be in tip top shape ;)

I also finally finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Friday as well, not that it was a long or difficult read, it's finding the quiet time with an active 5 year old ;) I was so excited to start the Davinici Code, I'm even on track to finish it by the time the movie comes out, yay!!

In stitching news I finished the Klosters on the wedding unity candle wrap, I forgot the pattern at home so I won't get to work on it until tonight. I also heard that we're losing our Lewiscraft, not that it was the best place to shop but after losing our little semi servicable LNS (the better ones are in Moncton) it still hurt a little. Although the announcement came with the fueled gossip that we're finally getting a Michael's like Saint John and Moncton. Not that it's the best place for stitching stuff, but LC wasn't either, floss and beads...at least now the floss will be cheaper and the beads in stock.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Good grief, yesterday was one of those days! I walked into the office and saw a familiar face from the gym, it's been several week since we moved our desks up to a different department which had room for our team and with training and bereavement leave I actually haven't been here that much. The second time I saw her she asked me if I was still going to the gym where she hadn't seen me. I've been going at night due to the new job's locale but the free parking situation requires walking a block then driving across town so lunch hasn't been an option. She actually offered to drive 3 days a week!! Yay! Now I can take the Sunday body pump and only have one week night that I have a class on or have to go after work, yay!! So I was feeling pretty good...then it all went bad.

Left work and picked up the boy, did groceries at lunch so it was looking to be a nice early peaceful night, NOT!! After talking with Tracy for a bit (Alex's caretaker and my friend, babysitter sounds so impersonal), well half an hour, Alex mentioned that his sneakers were in his book bag and that he needed new ones. Thanks for the notice, I can just imagine if I got home and found out I had more running around to do on a thursday, the day Matt gets home late so anywhere I go I have a monkey in tow, let alone the extra gas...so this involved a trip to the mall. Sears prices on the sneakers that fit the school criteria were insanely expensive (no lace ups until grade 2 and from those slim pickings most velcro shoes have too much plastic crap on them). Then we went all the way through the mall to the walmart/payless corner, and Payless had their BOGO event so Alex got some new indoor shoes and some outdoor sneakers for the spring from their Smart Fit line (decent arch supports, real leather and a decent price to boot). So after shelling out for those we headed back to the car, where I noticed he'd ripped his good columbia ski pants >:( The lack of snow but occasional freezing temps have made it hard to dress him and they don't seem to use any judgement and put him in his lined splash pants when it's warmer. 2 things down.... We then drove home. I went to back into the driveway, no REVERSE!! Darn it! I had to drive down to the cul-de-sac, turn the car around and drive in. I got half way in and though well...I should park it so if we have to push it it won't be to far, then I remember Matt wasn't in yet so I'd have to drive it up at least to the point where the driveway was officially doubled. I then sent the kid in because I was upset and was likely to be a bit snappy, brought in the groceries, put some transmission fluid in and called home.

That was helpful, I think. I felt a bit better, it's one thing knowing that you need repairs but when it's a possibly big job if it's not just a simple leak issue and you're in the works of buying a new to me vehicle it's really hard to know how much to give the garage the ok for. After supper Matt and I pushed the car out of the driveway which was a workout in itself (anyone that's seen my driveway, although straight would no why, it easily fits 4 full sized cars in lengthwise if not five). We also learned that the driveway isn't completely level! I then called dad as I'd calmed down some (knowing that at least I didn't have to spend the 80$ to tow it to find out what was wrong) and he was very helpful. The forward gears work like a charm so I drove it over to the garage this morning.

Now although I got my three breaks done I wasn't about to chance screwing up my hardanger candle wrap (Wedding Glow by Nordic Needle) so I called Cathey and then read more Harry Potter, less than 100 pages to go!! Today I'm waiting on hearing what the garage has to say and then hopefully having some stress reducing stitching tonight as I should be able to make an even bigger dent in Harry over the noon hour and finish it up quickly at home. Here's hoping things get better!

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Yay! I'm now officially down 23 lbs! I'd been down 25 earlier in the month but that corresponded with being sick and having my gram just pass away so I knew it wasn't one of those lbs that was going to stay off. Although to make myself feel even better that number is more like 28 which was me at my highest. ;) Just 12 more to go until this goal. My BMI is back in the healthy range so I expect to really have to work on this last 12.

Last night I didn't get a single stitch in, although I did get quite a bit in over breaks during the day. Newbody was awesome, and there's been a new release so it wasn't boring (which after weeks++ of doing the same routine was getting a bit monotonous). I logged into MSN just as Smallville was coming on and there was mom and Eleni so I set the VCR to tape ;) I had fun watching mom's new webcam, even with it's hiccups in sound and inverted horizontal display. I guess we won't be going home this weekend, our slots in the car have been usurped by the dog ;)/:( Oh well, I tried...I can't wait until the day I have a 'highway worthy' automatic vehicle again.

For supper last night we had Salmon in a white wine shrimp sauce out of the weight watchers cook book with some spinach, yum! We kind of od'ed on it last year until I pulled my other healthy cookbooks back out, the night before we had the Teriyaki Chicken Toss in Spaghettini out of Life's on Fires which was amazing, I even sub'd in some low sodium soya sauce and some whole wheat noodles, yum! Tonight's the curried chicken again, I can't get enough of it, and its quick to prepare on grocery night. Grocery night shouldn't be too bad, I still have stuff in the freezer from the last time I was actually shopping but didn't end up cooking that entire week due to the funeral and other family related activities. Yay!!

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

MMM....Today I headed over to Sarah's Sweet Delights to check on a message, instead of calling. Apparently the supplier of my ring bearer pillow found the discontinued one that I wanted (exactly one) at the back of the supply room, yay!!!! I wanted something that I could use in my home if I wasn't going to stitch something up (and I didn't need the stitching deadline).

In stitching news I think I have stitcher's ADD! Last night I started the unity candle wrap from Nordic Needle...must have been motiviated by my wedding nightmare....thankfully I find hardanger goes pretty quickly.

Nothing on the agenda for today with the exception of my Newbody class, I can't wait :)

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

I envy DS this morning, he got to wear PJ's to school, it was quite a sight driving in and seeing the principal out in flannel pants and bathrobe holding a big stuffed frog (their mascot). Why can't we do that at work??

Last night I got some stitching in on ITAOAA, the blueish purple section is really coming along. I'll have to post a pic tonight. I got to stitch and get caught up on Battlestar Gallactica as well, good night in all. Although last night I had another wedding nightmare (showing up unprepared) so maybe I'll start on my unity candle wrap tonight! I have my side of the guest list done and I just need to dwindle Matt's down some, yay! After that the invitations can go out :) And one less worry off the plate!

Monday, February 20, 2006

This weekend went by fairly quick and was much more enjoyable than last weekend.

Friday we were without power for about 9 hours, the lighting (candle & LED flashlight) wasn't good enough for stitching but I did get some reading in ;) Saturday, the monkey (ie: DS) and I packed ourselves into our fridgid car and headed to the theatre only to find that even showing up an hour early was too late to get tickets to Curious George, so I bought tickets to the 4 o'clock show and took him to toys r us to use part of his gift certificate. I really enjoyed the movie, it's a great first movie for little ones. I was kind of concerned walking in as there were alot of 2 and 3 year olds but they all seemed entranced with it, even Alex was. I'll pay the 13.75 anyday just to have him cuddle on my lap uninterrupted for an hour and a half though ;) Saturday night we introduced Matt to Wallace and Grommit as we picked up the Curse of the Were Rabbit, I'm kind of kicking myself as I didn't even think to look for widescreen, oh well.

Sunday morning the boys were up early and didn't shut the door nor attempt to be quiet so I was up when Matt's mom called. His father has a bad habit of calling WAY to early in the morning but not his mother and she sounded upset so I knew something was wrong. Apparently Matt's cousins husband (they live in the same subdivision as us) was in a really bad ski doo accident, but as of last night was stable. I was looking out the window when Matt told me and thought to myself, where on earth did he find any snow! (only half of our back yard has snow). I cracked a rib once and can only imagine how painful having 16 broken ribs is.

I did get some stitching in this weekend, In The Arms of an Angel is coming along nicely. I like that it has all the divisions in colour so you can work on a block, get sick of it and work on a completely different block of colour. Tonight I don't have any plans besides maybe spending my 15 flylady minutes in the craft room attempting to tidy it up, the house cleaning kind of went to the wayside last week and things are kind of everywhere, yay! Oh well, plenty of time to clean up...and leave some stitching time ;)

Thursday, February 16, 2006

I am eternally grateful for all of my friends that have made this week bearable. I appreciate the beautiful cards, some chicken a la king, e-mail's, friends at the wake, hugs, help with Alex, being lent the latest Monica Ferris mystery and even a MLI cross stitch to cheer me up made by Cathey. I am so thankful.

Last night was stitchy-Friends That Count-night, I was unsure of how long I was going to stay but I stayed until the very end. It felt so good to be out and about and laughing again. Now if only my stitching hand was moving as fast as my mouth ;)

I started In The Arms of An Angel yesterday, it just felt appropriate this week. Today we go meet with the hotel about the wedding reception, it's kind of bittersweet, something fun to look forward to but at the same time it'll be hard not to miss Gram's presense. After that there's going to be some stitching and sleeping and then it's back to trying to have a relatively normal workday tomorrow.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Well, its a day late but in light of all the running around that had to be done yesterday we'll be doing a little party tonight. I've felt and looked better but thanks for all the virtual hugs, prayers and e-mails or I'd probably look much worse. Yesterday was draining, I went to the Miramichi with dad to pick up clothes for mom and attempt to find her birthday gifts. I also spent most of the day trying to figure out how to tell my son his great grandmother to whom he was very close had passed away. Thankfully we were late getting back and it was to close to bedtime to tell him. Yesterday was also his hundredth day of school and I didn't want to dampen his celebrations, the news wasn't going to magically change unfortunately. Thankfully the autopsy that the hospital insisted upon was brief and not drag this out any further...morons, they couldn't admit her all the times she'd been in since christmas but now that she's passed away NOW they're interested in conclusive answer.

Last night mom informed me that they were doing a collage (sigh...most of the pics are on the miramichi) and when I went through the scrapbook I found my Grammie's Crab Apple Jelly day spread and started crying. It's also how I managed to tell Alex this morning without being 'cold' or distraught...eventhough no one intends on coming off that way as most people are in shock, I just wanted to give him a really happy day to look back on when I told him, instead of my mascara streaked face. Much better than how I found out, although that's primarily my own efficient self's fault. Mom e-mailed me to tell me she had headed for te hospital as there had been a call saying she'd taken a turn for the worse and that she'd call if there was a change. I was in training at a different building so instead of going over and checking my messages I walked to the government lot, picked up the car and headed up. I ran in to the minister coming off the elevator and he looked grave so I thought we'd gotten the bad diagonosis that I was expecting...when I walked into the room mom and my uncle were off in the corner crying and gram was asleep, I thought they just didn't want to wake her. It was only after walking back there that I found out she'd passed away :(

Today's a sort of day of rest. I need to find some clothes and we're doing a big family dinner with mom's brothers and their families (topped off with a Bailey cake ;)) Then it's the long haul, two wakes tomorrow, 2-4, 7-9 with an additional hour for family at 1 and the funeral Monday at 2. I'm off work until Friday and probably actually need it that way. Haven't stitched too much but that's to be expected.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

We got estimated...grr...For those not in on NB's latest WTF news story, NB Power doesn't have enough 'manpower' to check meters so they estimate them 4-8 times a year (but have enough to pay their employees a salary way off the regular scale for this area). Good grief. In the last month we've had our heat on even less, in fact turned off completely some days, and our power bill was higher than it was last year (100+ higher than last month) when it was -20 every day. They're going to get a NICE phone call today...I'll even drive their lazy butts out to the house so that they can properly read my meter, idiots. What ticks me off the most is that they don't even offer to compensate the overpayment with interest and charge interest if you don't pay that full amount, it seems highly unethical to me.

Yesterday was quiet otherwise, I didn't get a single stitch in :( I did sort the threads for a Mill Hill kit and that was it. We had a new dish from healthy family, curried salmon and egg noodle bake with peas which we really liked. I won't eat peas as a side dish so I measured out half the amount and mixed it in with the casserole, very good. After Alex got to bed and I tidied up some stuff I took a shower, logged online for a little bit and got ticked after I read my power bill, called mom to see how Gram was doing and headed to bed after a little cooking reading ;)

Today should be pretty quiet, I remembered my lunch so I should be able to get some stitching in at lunch instead of waisting time picking lunch up. After work I'll be getting groceries and then having a pizza/leftovers night before we head to the Math night at Alex's school. Stitching to ensue ;)

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Well the conservatives were sworn in yesterday...reminds me of another change of power 26 years ago from Feb 6, happy birthday little brother ;)

Nothing too much to report besides the previously noted happy dance last night. I did get caught up on battlestar gallactica last night while stitching but that's about it. This morning after making some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (sigh...forgot my chicken curry that was supposed to be for lunch at home) I grabbed one of my mill hill kits (I'm on course this week so I'd rather pull one of those out while I'm on break) and headed out. It's been so hard to figure out what to dress Alex in, snowpants or splash pants. It's so cold in the morning but it's usually warm and muddy by lunch, meaning many extra loads of laundry to keep his snowsuit presentable...

Today doesn't have anything on the roster, yay!! I love Tuesdays. Monday I try to head to the gym after work, Wednesday Newbody, Thursday groceries, friday body pump...except for this week where there's a math night at the school and I can't show up all sweaty ;) I may get groceries though and give myself a free night (well not so free, doing some pilates at home) on thursday ;) Mi Vida Loca!

Monday, February 06, 2006

Today started off on a sad note, reading that fellow blogger Laura passed away suddenly over the weekend. I'd read her blog on and off and was amazed by her work (her Titania is what inspired me to do mine on wedgewood as well). From her pictures and stories she seemed like a very vibrant person even if I hadn't met her personally (I don't get the opportunity to actually meet too many bloggers living off on the Canadian East coast). Life definitely is too short.

Although amoungst the sad news there was actually some good news filtering out of our house, a) Alex's Christmas concert clothes finally made their way home (brand new size 6 Children's Place Khaki's and polo oxford shirt, had just cut the tags off and sent as back up clothes for that concert)b) Booked a DJ for the weddingc) Stitching Happy Dance on Heart In Hand's Christmas Medley

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Yay, my first official tag, thanks Faith Ann. I must be a real blogger now ;)

What were you doing 10 years ago?10 years ago I would have just transferred to UNB from Acadia (I was homesick and the boyfriend was up at UNB). Because I was a poor student I wasn't up to anything overly interesting though ;)

What were you doing 1 year ago?Still unpacking the house and getting my craft room in order and was very dedicated to Flylady. I really need to get back to that. We (I) did alot of outdoor work this summer restoring some of the wood fixtures and flower beds so the indoor work kind of fell to the wayside.

Five songs to which you KNOW all the lyricsWelcome To The Blue House (theme song from Bear In The Big Blue House)Hollaback Girl-GwenOh CanadaMy Happy Ending-AvrilAnd 99% of the english songs Celine Dion has recorded (about 50% of the french ;))

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:Pay off the houseGrace my city with an LNSPut some money away for Alex's educationBuy myself a reliable puddle jumperBuy a house on my street for my parents to have as a retirement home ;)

Five bad habits:Leg shakingLeaving the laundry in the dryerStash buying (I have enough in my craft room to live 5 lifetimes as a millionaire)Leaving my stitching stuff in the computer roomMisplacing my purse

Five things you like doing:Cuddling at the movies with DSStitchingScrapbookingSoaking in the TubChecking out online stitching specials

Five things you would never wear, buy, or get again:Skin tight ikeda'sPermsJumperslouch socksear muffs

Yay, another little finish. Nothing to dance about though really, she's been sitting downstairs mostly finished with the exception of the red and green in her dress for a year now. I LOVE Mill Hill kits but have a bad habit of grabbing one that requires stitching for a car trip and then forgetting about beading them (can't quite bead in the car), now I have a goal to finish up one a month (the mitten was first, then ginger, and I think there's at least 4 more). It seemed like a good weekend to do so, I forgot my chart for DD's Summer's Magic at work, d'uh!! Now to go attempt to finish Heart In Hand's Christmas Medley...Can I have a 2 finish day??

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Before I go to the dogs...I thought I'd share my progress on Summer's Magic.

Today was a quite day, not alot on the wedding front, some training at work, an awesome lunch with mom and dad at the Snooty Fox and then tonight after groceries and homework I got to meet the newest edition to the family, a 3 year old Nova Scotia Duck Toller who's going to live with mom and dad.

I'm a big dog person and immediately fell in love with this guy. Alex wanted to make sure he knew his commands and tested him on 'sit' multiple times. After he got used to the fact that Jazz is about 4 times the size of Tanner, Tracy's Pug he was ready to hug and pat him. While mom was playing with Alex and Matt was showing dad some partitioning stuff on the PC I went out to play with the dog (who currently isn't allowed on carpet where he was kennelized at the breeders), 7th heaven!

Q: With the exception of your online stitching friends, do you have any other stitching buddies?

hehe, why yes I do ;) Although I must say, I was surprised to find an online stitcher just across the main road from our place who's now one of my best stitching buds ;) We have a local 'guild', non affiliated with any official guild, just a really fun group of girls that get together once a month (and sometimes when we're on the ball arrange workshops or most recently a baby shower), and since I've started going I've found a whole new set of friends. We also head up to a retreat twice a year in Bouctouche, NB which is soo much fun, simple but just what this mom needs. Also two of my very good friends at my old job were stitchers as well. And to put it all in prospective 2 out of 3 of my bridesmaids are stitchers :) It also amazes me how many techie girls stitch, alot of the girls I know through Computer Science are also stitchers...I thought we'd all be in the Arts faculty ;)

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Yesterday was going good until about 8:30. Found out alternate church was available, got to look at my awesome piece of fabric for Firefly Fairies from SMF which came in Monday, Cathey brought my BYC order with my LK Snippits for this year, buttons for Official Snow Guide, fabric for DD's Magic in My Needle and some WDW to finish up my HIH Christmas Medley, even my opalescent 25 ct lugana for the unity candle hardanger needle wrap and doilie arrived finally (another BYC order) but alas that was all to crumble :(

At dinner I told DFH that the church was indeed available and how grateful I was for my family helping me, then after DS went to bed and I asked for a flat out yes/no about switching then everything stalled and enter the first mention of 'I want our own church' reared it's ugly head, I don't swear much, if any in the last 6 years but after all the stress I've been under and the fact that I or members of my family have been doing all the leg and $$ work, I was probably a little less composed than Bree's famous meltdown and Rex's second graveside ceremony on Desperate Housewives.

But today's a new and hopefully better day, with hopefully some visitors arriving from the North ;)